Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act

Last week, TDN launched a cheat sheet to help guide industry participants through the launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) on July 1. Since then, we have been fielding unanswered questions that industry participants have about the process to register, and about the new playing field come July 1, forwarding them to HISA for response. Over the weekend, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus addressed a common registration problem bedeviling the system, with HISA's text message verification codes often been misclassified by telecommunications providers as spam. In short: While...

Only those living under rocks would be forgiven ignorance of the July 1 launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). Thanks to HISA's shifting goal posts and sometimes opaque approach to the dissemination of information, however, even those without such domiciles would be forgiven confusion as to what is expected of them between now and takeoff. The following, therefore, is aimed at providing a basic guide to help industry participants navigate the weeks ahead, from the registration process to important new rules that will be in place July...

In an era where trainers are increasingly hesitant to run their horses frequently and/or in races where they might be longshots, Graham Motion is a throwback. It often pays off for his perennially successful outfit, as it did on Saturday at Belmont, when his Highland Chief (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}), dismissed at 19-1 in a five-horse field, upset defending champion turf male Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and MGISW Gufo (Declaration of War) in the GI Man O' War S. Tuesday, Motion joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the...

Last week, an important piece of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) puzzle was slotted into place when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's board of directors announced that Drug Free Sport International (DFSI) had been selected as the enforcement agency for the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) arm of the program. In part one of this two-part Q&A, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus discussed the reasons behind DFSI's selection, details about the newly announced Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) and broad updates on the Anti-Doping and Medication Control...

Last week, an important piece of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) puzzle was slotted into place when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's board of directors announced that Drug Free Sport International (DFSI) had been selected as the enforcement agency for the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) arm of the program. DFSI has helped administer drug testing programs to a slew of human sports organizations, like the National Football League, NCAA, National Basketball Association, Ladies Professional Golf Association, the PGA Tour, NASCAR and Major League Baseball. Last week's...

California became the first state to opt into the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) enforcement structure on Thursday when the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted 7-0 to collect and remit fees on behalf of the new federal HISA Authority. For 2022, HISA has assessed California's portion of the Authority's budget to be $1.4 million, a figure that is based on starts and purses, and amounts to roughly 10% of the overall nationwide budget. It includes only the safety portion of the HISA program that will go into effect...

Alan Foreman, the chairman and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday afternoon as the Green Group Guest of the Week. Discussing the upcoming 2022 MATCH series for mid-Atlantic horses, a program he spearheaded, and providing updates on the scheduled renovation projects at Pimlico and Laurel, Foreman also called upon his legal expertise to weigh in on Bob Baffert's appeal of the GI Kentucky Derby disqualification and why the THA supports the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. While many in the racing...

LEXINGTON, KY--The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was a popular topic of discussion on Tuesday at the Association of Racing Commissioners International's (ARCI) 88th Annual Conference on Safe Horses and Honest Sport. Early in the day's session, a panel was held on the potential legal issues that could arise with the implementation of HISA. John Roach, HISA's general counsel, joined panelists Nolan Jackson and Joel Turner of Frost, Brown, Todd, LLC. The first issue examined concerned HISA's possible qualification as a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), a federal law...

A federal judge on Thursday threw out a constitutionality lawsuit initiated one year ago by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) that was designed to keep the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) from going into effect on July 1, 2022. "The Court recognizes that HISA's regulatory model pushes the boundaries of public/private Collaboration," wrote United States District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix in his Mar. 31 Northern District of Texas order. "The Court also acknowledges the dramatic change that HISA imposes nationwide on the Thoroughbred horseracing industry....

The New Jersey Racing Commission voted 6-0 Wednesday not to act as a middleman on behalf of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) by collecting fees from state licensees that will eventually fund the yet-to-get started authority's drug-testing and safety initiatives. The decision was hardly a surprise, and it yielded zero public discussion among commissioners prior to the perfunctory vote. It had seemed unlikely that the NJRC would be the first regulator in the nation to willingly craft a complex set of rules and set up a payment-collecting process...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the rules and accreditation standards that comprise the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Racetrack Safety Program on Friday. The National HBPA issued the following statement on Saturday: "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday, March 3, 2022, issued an order approving without exception all the racetrack safety regulations propounded by the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA). The rubber-stamp order accepted without issue all of the proposed rules as well as acceptance of the Authority's responses to the comments submitted by industry participants....

Time is barreling onwards towards July 1, when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is scheduled to go into effect, and the pulse of the industry appears to be one of growing trepidation over what promises to be a sweeping reorder of its working mechanics. That is hardly surprising, given the program still lacks a central enforcement agency, thanks to stalled talks towards the end of last year with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). What's more, in Lisa Lazarus, the board of directors has only just formally instated...